Tonearm re-wire - what would you use?

When soldering the Eichmann Bullet Plugs, do your best to get a heat drain that really pulls the heat away.

A normal RCA socket doesn't work out as well as something I found at Guitar Center. It's an all-metal three pronged contraption with an RCA socket and a 1/4" plug - there must be something on the third arm, but I can't remember what. It was just a few dollars.

When the RCA plug to be soldered is mounted on this, there is a lot of metal nearby to conduct the heat away. Set your soldering iron to the right temperature and be fast. The little solder gulleys on the Eichmanns are great.

Great RCA plugs.

Regards,

I have rewired my Eminent Technology ET2 four times over the years. Each time, I have used one continuous run from cartridge clips to preamp. I have used Vandenhul silver, Cardas, Discovery, and Audionote silver. My favorite, by a long shot is the Audionote. Fantastic resolution, refinement, and speed. And after break-in, not a trace of harshness. Maddeningly thin wire, but the upside is that it poses very little drag on the arm's movement as a result. $290 with AN cart clips attached for 1.5 meters, ordered through the US importer. Probably the most cost-effective upgrade I have ever made to my system.

An interesting project for you might be to order sufficient wire with clips and/or RCA's attached (or do it yourself), and try the wire attached to the arm externally so as not to alter your arms existing wire. AN is so thin that you could do this easily. I believe you'll be amazed. If you don't like it (unlikely), I am sure you cold sell it here for little, if any, loss.

I just rewired a Nottingham arm with Ikeda silver wire. Depending on the arm, I think it's not that difficult and well worth the $ and effort.

If your preamp has balanced capabilities, rewire with balanced connections.

Stringreen: Do you think any balanced connectors are as good as the Eichmann silver RCAs? Ie, isn't there a concern that the bulky XLR connectors will be a detriment to signal transmission?

Frogman: Kudos to you for being able to manage the Audio Note wire. Triplanar did not feel comfortable re-wiring their tonearm with the wire because of how difficult it is to work with.